Commissioning

Commissioning and grant-making

GambleAware is a grant-making body, using best-practice aspects of commissioning, such as needs assessment, service planning and outcome reporting to support effective, evidence-informed, high-quality gambling harms support services.

Underpinning this is a commitment to monitoring and evaluating services to ensure ongoing and continuous quality improvement of the grant-funding process.

Commissioning also allows for the provision of a range of evidence-informed high-quality services based on need and demand in target populations. The provision of a range of services, in different settings, catering to different levels of need, provides service-users with a range of choice on when and how they access support. The best practice aspects of commissioning represent good grant-making principles, to which GambleAware is committed. GambleAware’s commissioning in this way is in line with the commissioning and grant-making practices of most other health and social care commission and grant-making bodies.

Invitations to Tender

If you wish to receive notification of any new invitations to tender that are issued by GambleAware, please email us and request to be added to the GambleAware 'ITT database'. 

Treatment and Prevention Commissioning

We have three key objectives:

• Deliver safe & effective services with positive long-term outcomes for service users
• Spend money effectively and efficiently
• Distribute services across Britain as equitably as possible.

A strategic approach to identifying key priorities for the development of evidence-based initiatives to prevent and treat gambling harms:

• Specifying the services to be delivered
• Developing long-term partnerships to transform the delivery of quality services
• Leading the co-ordination of multi-agency teams to promote efficiency and best practice
• Ensuring regular reporting, public accountability and robust evaluation of a coherent programme of work.

GambleAware adopts best practice of statutory sector health and social care commissioning bodies.

GambleAware is committed to routine monitoring and evaluation to ensure ongoing and continuous quality improvement in relation to treatment services. GambleAware's quality assurance processes include:

• Funding agreements set out clearly a framework for quality assurance, performance monitoring and service improvement
• Established processes exist to ensure that commissioned services are accountable to our trustees, and that safeguarding and risk management is under regular review
• A Data Reporting Framework (DRF) is in place for all providers and ViewIt UK has been commissioned to operate a national information system available to the NHS
• An assurance scheme equivalent to Care Quality Commission (CQC) standard is being scoped in conjunction with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Responsibility for planning, agreeing and monitoring the prevention and treatment services funded by GambleAware lies with our Education and Treatment Committee. Decisions made by the Committee are subject to approval of the main Board.

Research and Evaluation Commissioning

Research and evaluation activity is focused on improving knowledge of what works in prevention, education, treatment and support services. GambleAware:

• Is approved by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) as an NIHR non-commercial partner
• Follows Research Council policy regarding research ethics
• Involves those with lived experience
• Ensures that all research is published following a process of peer-review by academic experts
• Conducts proportionate evaluations across prevention, education and treatment projects and programmes
• Monitors all prevention, education and treatment projects

Responsibility for planning, agreeing and monitoring the research projects funded by GambleAware lies with our Research and Evaluation Committee. Decisions made by the Committee are subject to approval of the main Board. See our current Research projects here, and our Research publications here.

GambleAware is committed to proportionate evaluation across all commissioned projects and programmes. Our projects and programmes are all monitored, and have evaluation frameworks in place. See our current Evaluation projects here, and our Evaluation publications here.

Find out more about Research and Evaluation here.